Mom: 'Kat” had run away from home; said interaction with daughter after that was minimal

Thursday

Jun 19, 2014 at 3:15 AMJun 19, 2014 at 9:22 AM

By Kimberley Haaskhaas@fosters.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story contains graphic descriptions of sex and/or violence that some readers may find offensive.

DOVER — Denise McDonough, the mother of star witness Kathryn “Kat” McDonough, testified Wednesday she didn't know her teenage daughter was dating Seth Mazzaglia until Kat moved out of her Portsmouth home in 2012.

“At what point did you become aware that your daughter was dating the defendant?” Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley asked McDonough.

“A couple of days after she moved out in February,” McDonough replied.

The mother of the state's star witness in Mazzaglia's first- and second-degree murder trial at Strafford County Superior Court said her daughter mentioned that she and Mazzaglia had common interests after meeting him during a summer theater production in 2011. Denise McDonough said Kat should just be friends with Mazzaglia after finding out he was in his mid- to late-20s.

“I said to just be friends and that in college she was going to meet some nice boys,” McDonough told Hinckley.

“How did you become aware that she had moved out?” Hinckley asked.

“A note,” McDonough replied. “I had gone into my room and it was on my bed ... I barely got through half of it before I had the keys in my hand.”

The note said, in substance, “I love you, but I can't stay here anymore. I need to leave. I need to be free. I will contact you when I am ready.”

Denise McDonough said she was surprised because Kat had never run away from home. McDonough said she eventually learned through email from one of Kat's friends that Kat was living at Mazzaglia's apartment.

Denise McDonough said after Kat moved out, her interaction with her daughter was very minimal. Kat would not return phone calls and only posted one or two things on Facebook after she moved from Portsmouth to the Sawyer Mill apartment complex in Dover.

Denise McDonough said she tried to contact Mazzaglia through Facebook, but after a conversation he told her, “I don't want to see you” and unfriended her.

Denise McDonough described her sons seeing Kat at Portsmouth High School, where she was a senior, and waving to their older sister in the hall. McDonough said she had no real contact with the teenager who used to love going shopping and hanging out with her. She got tickets for Kat's graduation in June of 2012 through her sons.

During direct and cross-examination, Denise McDonough described to the jury how she fought to get her daughter back into the family home.

“I thought I had convinced her to come home. I arranged to pick her up after work. On that day, she called in sick to work,” McDonough said. “I texted her and she said, 'Stop stalking me.'”

Denise McDonough went to Mazzaglia's Mill Street apartment that Sunday evening with Kat's grandfather and aunt. When McDonough got to the door, she heard voices inside.

Denise McDonough knocked on the door. Mazzaglia entered the hallway and closed the door almost completely behind him.

“Seth steps out and shuts it most of the way. His stance was like he puffed up his chest as big as he could be,” Denise McDonough said.

Public defender Joachim Barth asked Denise McDonough if Mazzaglia told her to leave.

“I said I wanted to see my daughter,” she said.

Barth said Denise McDonough called Mazzaglia a pedophile. When Kat's grandfather got involved in the fight, she came out into the hallway.

Denise McDonough said she sat on the floor in the hallway as Kat stood beside her. McDonough said they were both crying.

Eventually, police officers arrived at the complex. Denise McDonough apologized for her behavior.

“I said, 'I am so sorry, I apologize. My daughter moved out of the house. You don't understand. I want her back,'” Denise McDonough said.

Denise McDonough told the officer her daughter was 18 and Mazzaglia was 28 or 29.

She said she only saw her daughter a total of four times between the time Kat moved out of the house and the time Mazzaglia was arrested in connection with killing Elizabeth “Lizzi” Marriott.

Inmate takes the stand

Testimony against Mazzaglia started Wednesday morning with a man from Florida who has been in the jail system for 26 years and will have to register as a sex offender until 2067.

Christopher Ramos, 46, who was led into the courtroom in an orange jail jumpsuit and shackles, told Assistant Attorney Geoffrey Ward that Mazzaglia was a cellmate of his in the fall of 2012 while he was held at the House of Corrections in Dover.

Mazzaglia told Ramos he blacked out on the night of Oct. 9, 2012, the night Marriott died. Mazzaglia said that when he regained consciousness inside his Sawyer Mill Apartment, he was having sex with the 19-year-old Marriott and his live-in girlfriend, Kathryn “Kat” McDonough “was at her head.”

Ramos said Mazzaglia never told him what McDonough was doing.

Ramos said when he took the stand that he didn't want to testify because he feared for his safety in jail.

“It puts me in a bad situation,” he said.

Ramos is being held at Valley Street Jail in Manchester for failing to report as a sex offender.

In the fall of 2012, at the time of Mazzaglia's arrest, Ramos was being held at Strafford County House of Corrections for failure to register as a sex offender. Ramos was put in the medical unit because he got into a fight and could not be housed with the general population.

Barth quickly cut to the chase during his cross-examination of Ramos. He asked Ramos why he was held in the Dover jail on federal charges. The public defender insinuated Ramos was testifying Wednesday in exchange for a reduced sentence.

“Were you afraid she would do it again when you talked with your attorney?” Barth asked.

“They both did it,” Ramos replied.

When asked what he meant, Ramos answered, “I am talking about somebody dying.”

Following Ramos, another former cellmate of Mazzaglia's was brought to the witness stand in an orange jumpsuit and shackles. Andrew Sibik said Mazzaglia told him that during a sexual act, he threw Marriott into a position and it was “sketchy.”

Sibik said Mazzaglia told him that he called Roberta Gerkin of Rochester to come over and she showed up with Paul Hickok, who Mazzaglia claimed strangled Marriott when he saw her lying on the floor next to the futon Mazzaglia and McDonough used as a bed. “He said he tried to stop him. No, he put a hand on the shoulder of the guy. The Marine hit him in face,” Sibik testified to what Mazzaglia told him, adding, “He was rendered unconscious. When he woke up the young woman was dead and rolled into a tarp.”

Sibik said that Mazzaglia tried to get him to send a letter to McDonough through the mail but Sibik refused because he was getting into a drug rehabilitation program at the jail.

Trooper talks about interview with Kat

During the afternoon session, Sgt. Sara Hennessey of New Hampshire State Police testified about the 90-minute interview she conducted with McDonough at the Newington police station on Oct. 12, 2012.

Hennessey said McDonough told her and another investigator that she went to the cemetery to take some pictures of ghosts on the night Marriott was allegedly raped and murdered.

Mazzaglia was in another part of the police station answering questions from members of New Hampshire State Police and the Dover Police Department at the same time.

Hennessey said McDonough lost all of the color in her face when Gerkin and Hickok were brought up.

The interview stopped shortly after that.

Hickok was the last person to take the stand Wednesday. He said he met Mazzaglia and McDonough at a housewarming party Gerkin was hosting in the fall of 2012.

Hickok said he saw Marriott's mostly naked body on the floor of Mazzaglia's apartment with plastic shopping bags over her head.

Hickok testified that he did not touch the body. Instead, he urged Mazzaglia to call police or an ambulance.

When Mazzaglia kept sitting on the futon, repeating he had “gone too far,” Hickok and Gerkin left.

“It didn't seem to be getting anywhere,” Hickok said.

Hickok is expected to take the stand again Thursday when the trial gets back under way at 10 a.m.